Houston Texans edge defender Will Anderson Jr. is the current betting favorite to win the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year Award, and it doesn’t take much digging into the tape and data to see why.
The Texans drafted Anderson with the third overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. He improved both his overall PFF grade and PFF pass-rush grade in each of his first three NFL seasons, earning a 93.4 PFF grade and a 92.8 PFF pass-rush grade in 2025. And his strong start to 2026 suggests he is at least on track to maintain that level of play.
will anderson jr.: PFF grades and rank since 2023
Season Snaps Defense Rank 2023 695 81.6 21 2024 645 87.8 10 2025 779 93.4 1 2026 154 93.0 1Pressure Rate
Anderson has racked up 18 total pressures across 94 pass-rushing snaps through the first three weeks. With eight of those pressures coming in the form of sacks or quarterback hits, he also ranks inside the top 10 in knockdown rate at 8.5%.
Edge defenders: highest pressure rates in 2026
Player Team Pressure Rate Dallas Turner Minnesota Vikings 21.2% Greg Rousseau Buffalo Bills 21.2% Will Anderson Jr. Houston Texans 19.1% Uchenna Nwosu Seattle Seahawks 18.9% Byron Young Los Angeles Rams 18.7%Pass-rush win rate
Anderson ranks inside the top five at the position in PFF’s pass-rush win rate metric despite being double-teamed on 41.5% of his pass-rushing snaps. That is the highest double-team rate among the five players listed.
Edge defenders: highest pass-rush win rates in 2026
Player Team Pass-rush win rate Aidan Hutchinson Detroit Lions 28.0% Greg Rousseau Buffalo Bills 25.5% Princely Umanmielen Carolina Panthers 24.5% Chase Young New Orleans Saints 22.4% Will Anderson Jr. Houston Texans 22.0%Pass-rush grade
Anderson also ranks inside the top five at the position in PFF pass-rush grade, despite having a higher double-team rate than every other player in this group. By using a scatter plot created in PFF Pro, you can see that he is one of just four players in the upper-right quadrant, combining a high PFF pass-rush grade with a high double-team rate.
Anderson isn't just winning as a pass-rusher, though. He had a fantastic rep against the Colts this past week, dipping around a pulling blocker before quickly cutting back to bring down the running back for a short gain.
Will Anderson Jr. makes this look so easy pic.twitter.com/VQVo3OLzSV
— Gordon McGuinness (@GordonNFL) September 30, 2026
The data backs it up, too. Anderson ranks first among edge defenders in PFF run-defense grade (91.1), run-stop percentage (15.5%) and positively graded play rate (34.5%). His 3.4% negatively graded play rate ranks fifth best at the position.
Another scatter plot shows Anderson as an all-around menace at edge defender through the first three weeks of the 2026 season.
Will Anderson Jr. was already one of the NFL's best pass-rushers entering this season, but his improvement as a run defender has made him one of the most dominant all-around players in football in his fourth season out of Alabama. That might mean the season ends with Anderson taking home some individual hardware.